Shoe sole with apertured heel and shank portions



M23) 5, 1959 s L R ET AL 2,884,716

SHOE SOLE WITH APERTURED HEEL AND SHANK PORTIONS Filed Sept. :5, 1957 INVENTORS B05627 5%154425 By FzA 1W4 MAKAZA Unite rates iii SHOE SOLE WITH APERTURED HEEL AND SHANK PORTIONS Robert F. Shelare and Frank Malrara, New York, NX. Application September 3, 1957, Serial No. 681,830 1 Claim. (Cl. 36-41) This invention relates to footwear and more particularly to the heels and soles of footwear.

It is an object of this invention to provide a lightweight shoe.

It is another object to provide a cooler wearing shoe which reduces fatigue.

It is another object to provide a shoe having desirable elasticity.

It is a further object to provide a more comfortable shoe.

These and other objects will become apparent from a reading of the following description of illustrated embodiments of this invention shown in the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. 1 is a side view of a shoe, broken away in part to show novel separate heel and separate novel sole construction,

Fig. 2 is a bottom view of the shoe of Fig. 1,

Fig. 3 is a section view taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 4 of a unitary combination heel and full sole,

Fig. 4 is a bottom view of a modified shoe showing the unitary heel and sole of Fig. 3 and Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the heel of Fig. 1.

This invention is suitable for all shoes, but is especially desirable for use in platform shoes, the latter being ordinary shoes having a removable platform therein for increasing the overall height of the wearer of said platform shoes.

Turning to Fig. 1, the shoe is provided with a conventional removeable platform insert 11 made of cork, fiber, sponge rubber, etc.

The sole of the shoe 12 is the conventional sole provided with a plurality of relatively large holes 13, for example, one-half inch in diameter. These holes are punched into the leather but if the sole is molded from composition plastic material the holes are provided by suitable mold construction.

One of the purposes for providing the holes, or slots in lieu of holes, is to save on Weight of the shoe as well as amount of plastic material needed to make a sole. Another purpose is to provide a cooler ventilated shoe, ventilated by the walking action and movement of the wearers foot arch.

The number of holes or slots provided in the sole varies with the desire of the wearer to reduce foot weight and gain ventilation. The holes 13 may be all located in the shank of the shoe, or they may be all in the wearing section of the sole, but preferably they are disposed uniformly throughout the shank and wearing section of the sole as shown in Fig. 1.

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As shown in Fig. 1, the sole 12 is provided With an extra large aperture 14 in the heel, the shape of which may be as desired, but preferably the shape of the aperture l4- follows the contour of the heel 15.

The heel 15, Figs. 1 and 5, is preferably made of long wearing rubber and has the shape of a horseshoe. The rubber heel 15 may be secured to the sole 12 by suitable adhesive or it may be nailed to the hole 12 by nails conventionally molded in the heel 15 (not shown).

As shown in Fig. 3, the heel and sole may be molded as a unit 16 from plastic material or rubber and aperture 14X and slots 13X provided therein during the molding process. In Fig. 3 the heel portion 15X may itself be apertured.

The slot shape may be varied as desired and to provide suitable elasticity or give to the shoe. Thus the slot shapes may be crescent, rectangular, sinusoidal or undulating, semicircles, squares, etc.

Where platform 11 is provided, the platform itself may be provided with transverse apertures of any de sirable shapes disposed selectively in the platform to obtain the desired comfort.

Clearly a single sole 12 may be provided with apertures of mixed shapes, for example, slots and circles; or squares and crescents and circles; etc.

This invention embraces shoes having the inventive heel and sole combination, as well as the heel and the sole combination themselves.

Thus the invention is of generic scope as defined by the claim herein and embraces soles 12 Fig. 1 devoid of aperture 14 and used with conventional solid rubber heels as well as the sole 12, as shown (used with the horseshoe heel 15).

We claim:

As an article of manufacture an integral sole and heel unit adapted to be secured to a conventional shoe upper construction consisting of an elevated heel structure having a central aperture integral with a shank portion having at least one large aperture, said shank portion being integral with a non-perforated sole portion.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 30,391 Dexter Oct. 16, 1860 204,483 Cunningham June 4, 1874 231,830 McDonald Aug. 31, 1880 417,858 Church Dec. 24, 1889 429,429 Eckhardt June 3, 1890 1,423,445 Magaldi July 18, 1922 1,809,323 Williams June 9, 1931 1,852,883 Gastaveson Apr. 5, 1932 2,030,545 Schulze Feb. 11, 1936 2,267,125 Molnar Dec. 23, 1941 2,708,320 Hilton May 17, 1955 2,720,041 Kajtar Oct. 11, 1955 2,725,646 Schmidt Dec. 6, 1955 FOREIGN PATENTS 7,684 Great Britain May 17, 1890 266,407 Italy July 28, 1929 860,347 France Sept. 24, 1940 

